After An Educator's Journey
Out of the classroom & into the universe
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Once upon a time, I taught 2nd, 3rd, and 4th graders. Now I’m retired and working on new ventures.
Category: Braindroppings
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They make me laugh some times. In all seriousness, one of my students asked me “Mrs. Bisson, is a hellno bad?” What? And my little friend repeated the question patiently. Now this student who came to us last year from Gambia, speaks with a heavily African influenced accent. Perhaps I’m not hearing her? So I…
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It came to me as a sleep-filled message. One of my current charges is a real behavioral headache. This child has witnessed more trauma than anyone should, let alone anyone who is just 9 years old. And, as you might expect, the child has many behavioral tics that get in the way of his —…
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I am not a big fan of New Year’s resolutions. In fact, most years, I just blow them off — why does one day signify the starting point for change more than any other? During this vacation – yet another perk of working in a school system is the week off between Christmas and New…
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It happened that I was sitting at my desk during my lunch, reading the local newspaper, when I spotted an article about new ethics requirements for teachers who receive gifts from students. How ironic that this discovery was on the day before our Holiday break — and that 5 students had given me a Christmas…
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This morning’s Boston Globe contained an article about a (former) software engineer who had recently turned teaching yoga full-time. Struck by similarities to our circumstances, got me thinking about my own career. It is not a secret that recent developments in the field of education are not all that enjoyable for practitioners. We worry if…
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Junia Yearwood is quickly becoming one of my favorite Boston Globe reads. The article, “If Only Visitors Could See My Students“, provides insight into an urban classroom — and warns of the dangers of believing what one reads or learns via the fifth estate. So, here is what visitors might miss in my classroom. The…
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Junia Yearwood wrote in an OpEd piece in the Boston Globe this week that it takes a culture that values learning to educate a child. I couldn’t agree with this more. What is valued in our culture? I don’t believe it is intelligence and learning if pop culture is any indication. What struck me as…
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Yesterday during the first of three meetings I attended, we heard the news: next spring third and fourth grade teachers can expect their report card grades to be correlated to student performance on MCAS. And, I suppose, since that’s what happened last year, graphs and tables will be created into Powerpoint slide shows identifying each…
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I’ve been confronted with my age ta couple of times this weekend. It was not an altogether pleasant trip down memory lane. Woodstock Then and Now was on the History Channel last night. In the summer of 1969, I was a junior, about to be senior, in high school. A couple of my classmates went…
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